Celebrate Lobo Week with Cleveland Metroparks Zoo March 23-30!

• Posted at 9:16 am on March 22, 2013 by laura
• In Conservation & Science Comments: 1

Help Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Wolf Conservation Center celebrate Lobo Week March 23-30. What's Lobo Week? Read on...

What's Lobo Week? It's a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the return of the lobo, or Mexican Gray Wolf, to its ancestral home in the wilds of the Southwest. Help Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Wolf Conservation Center celebrate Lobo Week March 23-30.

There are five subspecies of gray wolf, but the Mexican subspecies is notable for being the rarest and most genetically distinct. After becoming essentially extinct in its native range for many years, this endangered subspecies was re-introduced in 1998 and there is now an estimated population of 40-50 individuals in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has six Mexican gray wolves and all are females from the same litter. Their names are Catori, Sarita, Una, Aprecia, Nancita and Mitzi.

Visit the Zoo's Facebook and Twitter pages for fun facts all week long.

Background on Lobo Week:

On March 29, 1998, eleven captive-born Mexican gray wolves were released to the wild in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the southwest. This smallest, southern-most occurring, rarest, and most genetically distinct subspecies of gray wolf had been missing from the landscape for over 30 years. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the lobo’s return, and organizations across North America are uniting to make an educational splash in honor of this milestone in conservation.